BANGLADESH’S coast guard rescued 396 starving Rohingya refugees who had been drifting at sea for weeks after failing to reach Malaysia, officials said today.

Some 32 reportedly died on the overcrowded boat according to media reports, but officials said that they were unable to confirm the figure.

The refugees, nearly 250 of them women and children, were attempting to land on Bangladesh’s coast in the Teknaf area in Cox’s Bazar late Wednesday night.

Officials gave conflicting accounts of whether those rescued had been among the close to a million Rohingya Muslims who are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing ethnic and religious violence in Myanmar. 

Each year thousands of Rohingyas try to reach other countries on overcrowded vessels.

Coastguard leader Sohel Rana said that the refugees had started their journey for Malaysia about two months ago and had been drifting at sea for weeks before returning to Bangladesh. 

Cox’s Bazar police superintendent Masud Hossian said that the refugees were lured by traffickers and that the owner of the boat was a Myanmar national.

Others claimed the rescued refugees were from Bangladesh camps.

Speaking to AP anonymously, an intelligence official, who talked to at least 10 refugees, said they had come from camps in Cox’s Bazar and that the boat had attempted to land in Malaysia at least six  times. 

He said one refugee told him that several people had died on the journey. 

The UN’s refugee agency said that it had dispatched staff to the site to help the “extremely malnourished and dehydrated” people. 

UNHCR spokeswoman Lousie Donovan said that the refugees were being transported to designated quarantine facilities in case of coronavirus and will be receiving medical attention.

She said: “We understand these men, women and children were at sea for nearly two months in harrowing conditions and that many of them are extremely malnourished and dehydrated. 

“Our primary concern is for people’s immediate health and first aid needs.”

Ms Donovan said that the refugees would enter a 14-day quarantine as a precaution against the coronavirus.

“Media reports that the group may be infected with the Covid-19 virus have not been substantiated,” she added.